Sleater-Kinney

Sleater-Kinney played BJ's in Fredonia back in December of 2004. The band had been in town during November recording at Tarbox Studios. These songs would become their album The Woods. This was their first album on Sub Pop after several years of releases on Kill Rock Stars. It would also turn out to be their last album, as the band went on hiatus in 2006.

The show happened on a snowy Thursday night. It was December 16th, which was probably the last day before the college closed for winter break. There was a brief power outage in the downtown area at about 10:00 PM, which could have jeopardized the whole evening. Luckily the lights came back on and things could go on as planned.


Carrie Brownstein

Since Sleater-Kinney had just finished a new album, the BJ's show was a tune up for a New Year's Eve concert at Madison Square Garden. They were opening for Wilco and the Flaming Lips. Every so often a band that records at Tarbox will play a show at BJ's. This has happened before with Mogwai, Phantom Planet, Longwave and MGMT.


Corin Tucker

There was a good turnout for the show. It wasn't the most packed that I've ever seen the bar, but Sleater-Kinney certainly weren't playing to the bartender and the walls. The crowd was supportive because they were hearing new songs many months before they were officially released.


Janet Weiss

I'm not a huge Sleater-Kinney fan and at the time of the show I only knew their One Beat album. The then new songs sounded pretty good. The band was solid and put a lot of energy into the show. I guess there were some complaints from long time fans that their favorite older songs didn't get played, but that seems to be a moot point six years after the fact.

And that's the story behind another show in Fredonia from some time ago.

Notes:
1. Sleater-Kinney were the only band that played. There was no opening act.
2. In going through my old photos, the walls used to be a lot cleaner at BJ's.

Drainolith

Drainolith will be at Soundlab in Buffalo on Monday, November 22nd. The band is the solo project of Alexander Moskos, guitar player for AIDS Wolf. Moskos uses guitar, synthesizers and electronics to create lo-fi noisescapes. He is doing a short tour around the Lake Erie region:

Nov 22 - Buffalo, NY at Soundlab
Nov 23-25 - sesh in Cleveland
Nov 26 - Cleveland at Cool Ranch
Nov 27 - Toronto at Taranga
Nov 28 - Montreal at Cagibi with Emily and AJ, IDMTheftAble.

Downer, Jacobian and UVB76 are also scheduled to perform.

Soundlab is located at 110 Pearl Street. The doors open at 9:00 PM.

For more info:
shesellsrecords.blogspot.com
aidswolfs.blogspot.com
theeouternet.blogspot.com

Note: The flash going off in the video is from my camera.

The Progress

Taken from the band's myspace:

"The Progress was a band from 2001 to 2008. We were four grade school friends who learned how to play music (and our instruments) together. In our lifespan, we wrote two EP's and a LP. We spent the majority of our time as a band winning the hearts of guys in their 20's and getting booked on metal shows that we didn't make any sense playing. Live and learn".

Read more: http://www.myspace.com/theprogress#ixzz14norf7bC

Honestly, I cannot remember where/when exactly I first came across this band....
It was definitely in my first few years of college when I started to really get into their first EP Golden State (2004), which later led me to their full length Merit. They share a bit in common with Counterfit, playing catchy and angular shit, and they were both on Negative Progression Records. I remember talking to Evan about The Progress briefly when Damiera came though in 2007 and he was playing bass for them, but it was a drunken "hey I really like your old band..." Yeah, lame and embarrassing...

Anyways, despite seeing Evan in numerous incarnations (Damiera, Into it. Over it.), I don't really have much else on this band. Although I think part of the reason I was so inclined to post on them was the short bio they gave (above). Being a part of a band from high school to college with the same group of friends, learning your instruments together, and playing shows that you had no business being on were all points I could relate to in a waaay too familiar sense (like on tour this summer when a 6'7'' dude in a floorpunch tank top from NJ talked my ear off on how good The Progress was). But I also think it shows in their music. There are great dual vocals from Evan and the "lead" singer Eric(?), that really emphasize the conversational aspect of their music and really showcases how they were working out these issues like singing, learning an instrument, or putting a song together, while still remaining autonomous. All of the members display a level of musical skill, specifically in the other guitar player's lead parts (check out "Backwards From Ten" on Merit, or the boner-riff in "Straight Shot From St. Louis" on the Golden State EP). I know I'm beginning to champion a certain aesthetic here on this blog, but I think that with the recent interest in this type of music/bands, it would be a crime not to include The Progress, even if the material is sparse and a bit tough to find.

Also, be sure to check out Evan's new project Into it. Over it. The Snack Town 7" he did with Castevet has a great song called "Summerville, SC" that really sounds Progress-y. And if you see IIOI and like The Progress, request a Progress song! Apparently he'll do "Merit", but for fear of having another "that guy" episode like I did when he was in Damiera, I backed off and kept my mouth shut when he came and played this summer.

You can get their old demos and EP's here: http://theprogress.peekok.com

I'll post a video later, this library computer is giving me some problems.

Counterfit

Counterfit was a four piece band that started in 1999 and broke up in 2004. They released 2(?) EP's (On The Downside, and From Finish to Starting Line), one full length (Super Amusement Machine For Your Exciting Heart), and toured forever. They were on Negative Progression Records, home to another band and future post, The Progress.
I guess what amazes me about Counterfit is how polished they are, and how much they bring to the table with so little. What I mean is, they don't really use a lot of intricate guitar leads or complicated instrumentation. Instead they take basic chords and delicate picked sections and somehow manage to combine it with precision and energy. A few of my friends and I joke that Counterfit is most impressive when they're not playing anything. Their stops, starts and transitions are seamless, without compromising songwriting or melody like some technical/mathy stuff tends to suffer from. If you're a fan of Mock Orange, Park, or No Knife, check this band out:

http://www.myspace.com/counterfit

Unfortunately, like many bands, Counterfit's largest tour (with Recover and Finch in 2003) was also their last. They released a DVD/CD in 2007 entitled "Managing the Details of an Undertaking" documenting the tour, the entire farewell show, tons of unreleased songs (including a cover of "Million" by Jawbreaker), and old performances.

Bass player Justin Rodriguez and Guitar player Dan Reed both have current solo projects, while brothers Marc and Adam Allen started Helen Earth Band, who happen need your help with a van! If you want to see them, toss them a few bones or pick up their album Our Own Ghost City. It rules.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/helenearthband/put-helen-earth-band-in-a-van

Helen Earth Band - "(We All) Talk With Knives"


Counterfit - "From Finish to Starting Line"

Pond

It's probably a good idea to explain a little about the background of this website to provide a degree of context for anybody who is reading that doesn't know us personally. As it stands right now, Radish White Icicle is the product of three people: Matt, Dylan and myself. It couldn't exist without the town of Fredonia, NY. Fredonia is a small college town about an hour southwest of Buffalo. The Bills used to have their training camp here, if that helps you find it on a map. Matt and Dylan met while attending SUNY Fredonia. I got to know them from this being a small town and having a mutual interest in many of the same bands. Matt finished up college in May and moved to Chicago. Dylan is in the final stages of getting his degree. I'm the older local guy who tells them what albums from Chavez and Guided By Voices they need or that I saw the Archers Of Loaf back in 1997.

All of that brings us to Pond. Dylan posted their video for "Spoke" on Facebook a couple weeks ago. I was like, "Wow. Pond. There's a name from the past. They played Fredonia with the Screaming Trees and Poster Children in 1993 or 1994." After digging through my tickets stubs, I found the one for the show. It would have happened my freshman year of college at Allegheny College. I came home often because there weren't many shows going on there and Fredonia has always had some degree of a relevant music scene.

This tour featured the Screaming Trees, Poster Children and Pond. The Screaming Trees were riding their big MTV hit song "Nearly Lost You." It almost seems hard to believe today that heavy airplay of a video could make or break a band. Nowadays you have to hope your video goes "viral" on YouTube. And that just sounds lame. Things like that along with the radio and actual written press coverage mattered. I'm not saying that to be judgmental, but merely to point out the differences. Both the past and present have their positives and negatives without either one necessarily being better or worse.

As for the show, I don't remember all that much about it. The Screaming Trees were awful. I wasn't familiar with Pond or Poster Children, but I seem to recall that Pond were the best band of the night. My friend Dan bought their self titled debut album on Sub Pop and I taped it from him. (Side A of the tape has L7's Smell The Magic, in case you were wondering.)

I listened to the Pond tape again recently out of curiosity. They definitely fit the Sub Pop "grunge" sound of the time. It's a style that I have a rather low tolerance for and I generally find anything grunge to be about the most painful thing ever to listen to. Their album is decent and veers more toward the indie/post-hardcore side of things. After checking out their website, I'm sort of inclined to investigate the Poster Children's back catalog a little.

Now everyone knows some background about this here website and about one show that happened in Fredonia a long ass time ago.

Pond:



Poster Children:



Screaming Trees (I won't feel bad if you don't watch this.):



Note:

If you look at the bottom of the ticket, the location given is the Campus Center. This is the building now named the Williams Center. Since I grew up in Fredonia and spent a lot of time at the university because my dad worked there, I will always call the building the Campus Center out of force of habit.